Email list. How many times have you heard these words lately and have been postponing to work on it?
I get it, setting up and building an email list is not a fun task, but it’s a necessary one! You may have heard many times that if you are starting your own business and stepping into this entrepreneurial world you must have an email list. I want to use this space to help you stop procrastinating and start working on your list now!
There are so many reasons why you need to start and grow your email list, and I want to talk to you about it. Let’s talk about the first steps first!
Where should you start?
The very first step is signing up to an email provider. The options are endless, you will find so many different offers and I am sure you are going to find one that will fit your needs!
Signing up to an email provider usually requires spending money. I highly recommend this investment, and you will perfectly understand why once you start running your own email list!
Some email providers offer a free start-up plan, I’ve seen some offering the first 1,000 or 2,000 for free, and the chargers start after you pass that mark. These providers usually charge you as you grow, so the more subscribers you add to your list, the more you will pay to be able to use that provider, and this can get pretty expensive given your growth!
Some of these free starter plans also won’t offer automation. I used to have one of these free accounts, and I was only able to set one welcome email whenever I had a new subscriber.
That was very unfortunate because I wanted to greet my new subscribers with a welcome sequence, and I just couldn’t unless I paid for it.
Not long ago, I stumbled upon this amazing email provider called Flodesk, and my friend was I hooked???
Flodesk believes in their customers and they don’t “penalize” us with the fact we are growing our email list, and I just love that.
No matter if you have 1,000 or 100k subscribers, their price is still the same! Better yet, their fee is less than $50 bucks a month…. yes, you heard me right!!!
In fact, if you use this link right here you can get yourself 50% off! Imagine having a super-powerful email list, with endless segments and automation, plus beautiful templates and super easy drag and drop tools for under $25 bucks a month?
You must check out their offer, you won’t be disappointed!
Setting up an account with an email provider is your first step into this journey. Don’t delay anymore and just check out your options and what works best for you. Deal??
Freebies!
After signing up for your email provider, your next step is to make your first freebie! A freebie or a lead magnet as it is also known, it’s how you are going to be able to collect those emails.
You need to have something valuable to offer to your audience in exchange for their email. People won’t simply just give their email away for “free” they want someone from you in return.
Back in the days, people used to simply sign-up for a website when they saw a box saying “sign up for our newsletter”. Things have changed a lot since then. Nowadays, we have to think about an email just like a phone number, people don’t just give it away that easily. Needless to say that those boxes saying “sign up for our newsletter” do not work anymore!!
Your first freebie should be something simple, easy, and yet very valuable. You need to provide your audience with a quick win. You have to think about what your audience needs, what’s the one thing they are struggling with?
That is where you come into action, you can put that quick solution for them onto a simple PDF form, for example, that is a great freebie or lead magnet however you want to call it.
Translate their solution into a cheat sheet, a guide or a checklist. These are by far very powerful lead magnets and very easy to create.
Since you are just beginning you should keep things easy until you are ready to get more advanced in your freebies. There are so many different types of freebies you will be able to create down the line! – very exciting my friend!!
Once you create your freebies, you want to go to your email provider and attach them to an email your subscriber will get as soon as they opt-in. This is very important. Remember that your subscriber is looking for a quick answer, and once they hit the submit button they will immediately check their inbox, so make sure you set up your freebie to be delivered as soon as they submit to it.
Where to put your freebies?
Once you’ve made your lead magnets or freebies, and have them all set up to your email provider, you are going to place them onto your website. Here is a trick, you should not place them just once on your website. A person needs to see something many times before they decide to take action. If you place it only once at the bottom of your website, for example, you won’t get any subscribers.
The more you place them the better! I will give you a few options on where to place them:
1- Your website header.
When someone clicks on your website the very first thing they will see is your header – your logo, your menu, your picture and guess what? They should see an option to snag a free resource to help them solve that problem that you figure out they have! AKA your freebie!
2- A popup.
Sure popups could be annoying, only if you don’t know how to use them. Luckily, nowadays any email provider can help you set up a converting pop up in no time. You can choose exactly how you want it to be displayed on your website and for how long.
3- A popular blog post.
Time to check your analytics and see which blog posts attract a lot of traffic, and definitely place a freebie option there. Make sure your freebie is relevant to your post as well.
4- Your about page.
Did you know an about page is the most viewed page on a website? If someone lands on your page, they most likely will check your about page, they want to know who you are, and why you are offering what you offer. So definitely a freebie on your about page.
5- A freebie page.
Create a special place on your website just for your freebies, especially if you make more than one, build a page especially for them, that way your audience could browse through them and decide which one meets their needs the most.
There you have it, this is the very first step you must take to start building your email list. Once you start the rhythm of it, it will become easier and easier, I promise. I am not a tech person, like at all, and if I can figure it out, so can you, my friend.
Start researching for an email provider, or go with Flodesk (you won’t be disappointed, trust me!), and take that very first step you’ve been holding back, right now.
Have fun making your opt-in freebies, make them your style and wow your subscribers from the beginning by giving them the answers that they are looking for!
You need to know that your subscribers are like your good friends, and you have to treat them well, keep in touch with them and give them good advice, that way they will always come to you. Whenever they need help with something, your name will be the first one to pop up in their minds.
